THE INS AND OUTS OF THE FOREST CITY COOKBOOK

THE IDEA:

This is a tribute to London's culinary heroes, who want to be the change - and make a change - one bite at a time!

WHAT: We want you to engage with our city on a deeper level, by creating a cookbook inspired by the London's culinary masters. These are the faces behind your favourite restaurants, who are constantly taking risks, learning and innovating to take our city one step forward in the culinary scene. From conservative to modern, we believe London can be the next best food city in Canada.

Within the pages of this cookbook, you’ll find original recipes inspired by many different stories. Learn what motivates our chefs to cook with more and more passion everyday. What are their biggest satisfactions? How challenging it is to create the perfect recipe? and more...

WHERE: Inspiration comes from within. We have plenty of creative artists around us and sometimes they go underappreciated. London deserves the credit for being a beautiful, blooming city full of promise for anyone looking to learn or refine their craft. There's no need to look anywhere else!

HOW: We are connecting the amazing talents of chefs, restaurant owners, local producers, brewmasters and YOU. This will be a cookbook, a tour guide and a relationships promoter. Let the chefs guide you through the pages of the book or meet the maker yourself! (perks of living in the same city)

WHY:Eating is a celebration. It is a special time of the day to gather around the table with friends and family. It is a moment of connection with many elements: the soil and animals that provide the food for us, the people who harvest, the person who cooks and the people around us nurturing our souls. Our modern fast-paced society often forgets about these connections.

Eating has stopped being a ceremony of love and has started to become a stone on our way to continue working. We want everyone to press pause for a second, and reconnect again. Food is love!

WHEN: We started working on this idea in the dawn of January, 2017. We feel confident with the concept, structure and are ready to move forward with production. We will be working non-stop, all year round, to have the cookbook ready to go for Spring 2018. So that you receive your copy at the very beginning of growing season.

We will be updating you along the way, with weekly blog posts and behind the scenes photos/videos. We want you to feel as involved as we believe you are. After all, this is YOUR cookbook.

Connect and share this journey with us!

RECIPES:

Each Chef will develop 1-3 recipes accompanied with a short story of its origin, the local producers they work with, and the best beer to pair them with for a total of 120 recipes.There will also be some handwritten notes, options for garnishes, substitutions and tips for plating, so you get exactly what you need... and more!

The book will include 1 main + 3 different indexes, so that you can navigate the way that works best for you:

•MAIN: Ingredients: Each farm involved in the cookbook will highlight one ingredient they produce, which will be followed by recipes made with those ingredients.

• Chef Index: A list of all the chefs, their recipes and where they are in the book.

• Course Index: Separated into appetizers, mains and desserts - with some extra things like snacks, sauces, special occasions, more desserts, cocktails and more..

• Lifestyle Index: For the omnivores and herbivores at your table, including vegetarians and vegan recipes.

PRODUCERS:

Farming is a labour of love. it's a passion, an obsession and a daily opportunity to observe and learn from mother nature. It is always changing and always inspiring.

We will share the stories of some of our local producers which will include; their journey, the biggest challenges and what motivates them everyday to wake up before sunrise and work in their fields until dawn. It is hard work (but it is 100% worth it) for our dedicated farmers to provide best ingredients to their customers (who often become close friends). Why buy food in a package, when you can pick your own? Cut out the middle man, colourful labels and get your ingredients from the farm straight to your table. That way you support your community and guarantee that you are getting fresh produce made with care. Discover what is available around London and connect with the farmers!

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Each week we'll feature one of the chefs from the Forest City Cookbook with a short teaser video of their recipes, several behind the scenes photos and a short blog on some of their expectations, inspirations and challenges towards the project.

DESIGN CONCEPT:

We want to design this cookbook in a way that reflects all aspects of London. We concluded with two ideas that we feel capture the Forest City in its true essence: Antique & Rustic to represent London's traditional and conservative background, & Mysterious & Adventurous to express the great things happening in our city. Like being in a foggy forest, you must let the fog clear to discover the wonderful things behind it. We want to make sure that London’s roots and traditions are woven into the journey of new food.

TIMELINE:

JAN to APRIL: All aboard! We got in touch with the chefs, all of our producers to schedule farm visits, designed the website, took chefs portraits, created our social media accounts, developed a marketing strategy, explore legal contracts, and gathered The Dream Team. Yeah, we’ve been busy.

MAY to JULY: Content! This includes recipe development + behind the scenes snapshots + funding campaign for covering the legal fees, media promotion, ingredients for photoshoots, props, and stylists. However, if we don’t achieve our funding required to cover all that, we will have to extend!

AUGUST to DECEMBER: Let’s get cookin’! Production starts for food photoshoots, layout design, shopping for porps, styling guides, copyright proofs, and the first digital version of the book. Exciting times!

JANUARY to MAY: First book and proof approval will be completed and then sent off to the print shop! After that, it’s a waiting game for the books to arrive and then for us to send them out to our supporters! This is the time for you to get your kitchens ready and come on down for the launch party!

BUDGET - CROWDFUNDING**:

This is a passion project. We want to bring great recipes closer to everyone and motivate people to get together and cook! ALL the creative fees and recipe development is on us, but we need your help to back up the ingredients for the photoshoots, beautiful props and most importantly: PRINTING costs. We believe in the power of food, but we need a little boost to turn this ideas into realities.

CURRENT STAGE: The Chefs are already in the kitchen making their magic, while we're asking for help to bring their creations to life. Your donations will make this happen!

EXPENSES: We want to be transparent, because this book is for YOU. Here is a short description of where the cash goes:

REFOREST LONDON: 10% of printing costs will go to the Reforest London Organization and their program: One Million Trees. That means for every book you buy, many trees will be planted in our city.

NOTE: We are not registered as a charity organization, so we are not able to provide tax deductible receipts for your donations.

REWARD PACKAGES:

This book will be a combination of all our love, mixed with your support. We know that this project isn’t possible without you. So, to make sure that you feel just as involved and in love with the idea of The Forest City Cookbook as we are, we’ve created six different packages to fit everyone’s budget:

• 1. GOOD KARMA-$5: Pure love is the willingness to give without receiving anything in return. We will be forever thankful and will love you always. Also, a shoutout on our socials!

• 2. e-NTO THE WILD-$25: Includes one digital copy of The Forest City e-Book. Experience the forest anywhere- any time. You get a downloadable version of the cookbook and a shoutout on our social media accounts.

• 3. EARLY BIRD-$50: Includes one early bird copy of the cookbook. Shipping is not included. Several pick up locations will be announced when the books arrive in Spring 2018 and we will accommodate a location near you to make it easier.

• 5. FOREST GUARDIAN-$1000: You truly believe in the power of food - and we appreciate that! This package includes one signed hardcover copy of the Cookbook BY ALL TEH CHEFS + Dinner with one of our InHome Chefs for 6 people + a Thank You note on the acknowledgement section of the Cookbook + Invitation to the Launch Party for 2 people. Limited 10

Participant Chefs: Chad Steward (5) / Thomas Waite (5)

• 6. THE NEXT FOREST WONDERER-$2000: Woah! You’re a foodie and a believer of the forest powers. This package includes one signed hardcover copy of the Cookbook BY ALL THE CHEFS + the oportunity to add one of your recipes into the Cookbook* + a thank you note on the acknowledgement section of the Cookbook + an invitation to the Launch Party for 2 people. Limited 5

• FIND YOUR TRUE NORTH: Create your own. You can customize the amount you want to donate towards the project and every donation over $50.00 will get a hardcover copy of the Cookbook with a shoutout on our social media platform.

*Terms and conditions for Next Forest Wonderers: Your recipe must be a completely original creation and cannot be taken from other sources or copied in any way from other published recipes to avoid infringing on other artists’ copyrights. Measures and preparation must be at least triple tested, including at least one test in presence of one of our staff members. The authorship of the recipe will remain to the creator but he/she must grant an unlimited license of use to the Forest City Cookbook meaning that we can make use of the creator's name, culinary story and developed recipe and can reproduce it unlimited times worldwide on any platform -online and printed- including promotional material. There will not be any royalties associated with the development and publishing of any recipe. We will include your name on our website under the "artists section" and depending on the date of submission and current stage of the project we will take behind the scenes photos of you cooking to promote on social media (preferably before the end of July). As part of your participation you must include a short inspirational story about your culinary background, motivations, biggest satisfactions, goals and dreams, as well as handwritten notes like: substitutions, tips, garnish options, plating methods, etc for including on your recipe for the book.

An agreement must be signed before the release of any the material associated with your participation on the project. You'll be contacted by us for the following steps. Welcome to our wonderful TEAM!

**All pre-orders are final. There won't be any refunds unless the project doesn't reach its crowdfunding goal.